Too Little, Too Late
by Heavenztrash
Summary: Because I've been requested so many times, a short-ish Gob/Vaultie fluffy romance fic for all the Gob lovers out there. Typos exist, it was a fast write and I apologize. Also, apologies to Nova fans, she's not painted in the nicest light here.


It's been requested a few times and I'm an accommodating kind of gal,  
so here's a short Gob-centric one for all you Gob-o-philes out there.  
He's no Charon but I love the boy just the same. ;)

PS. For anyone confused, all of my stories as of late have "starred" different vaulties,  
not one that keeps changing karma. And here's another one. It's just easier for me to write that way so I  
don't have to worry about continuity too much.

Anyways. On with the writing…

Title

Sunlight poked through the broken blinds, streaking the dingy room with brilliant  
slashes of white light not unlike laser beams burning through the dust that hung in the air as  
captive as him or I.

I'd had my place in Megaton for awhile now, but in all honesty it could be said I lived at Moriarty's  
because I spent more time there with Gob than anywhere else.  
My work was done for the time being and Megaton, Moriarty's was the only place that seemed like home now. So many people met, so many tangled webs, I craved the simplicity of Gob's company.  
The sheer unassuming loveliness of his company. A rare commodity in a world where there are too many dogs fighting over too few scraps of meat.

I play bit him on the neck and he giggled and swatted at me while kicked the sheets off us and rolled over him, my feet hitting the parched floor as I staggered over to jump into my pants.

We got dressed, scarfed down some vile "food" in a box and cracked the door open making sure the coast was clear before he went down to his respective job and I slipped out the back door.

I spent the day as I typically did, pinching pennies from the little nest egg I had saved up scouring the Wastes in weeks past, sitting at the bar, watching the people come and go, stealing glances and moments with Gob until a lull fell over the place and I knew it was night time.  
It was as pointless a day as any, but I figured since I'd owed it to myself after all I'd seen and been through in the past month or so, so I didn't think too much of spending the day in a room with him.  
I'd go out again when I started to run low on caps but until then I could just waste time.  
I don't think he knew it was me who killed Moriarty, but I didn't think it was too far fetched to think that he suspected as much. But it didn't matter now because all was as it should've been and if anyone deserved some freedom and peace it was him so I was happy to give it to him regardless of how I had.

"Think I'm gonna close up early today" he whispered to me, leaning over, his head propped up on his hand.

Hearing him say that alone was worth dragging Moriarty's dead weight up a slope to stuff under a pipe in the dead of night. Gob's happiness was worth more than that scumbag's life any way you cut it.

"I'll go grab us something to munch on. Meet me upstairs" I said.  
"We'll read some comics and I'll give you a back rub."

He practically bounced in lack of a better word. Like a dog wagging an invisible tail.

"Ok!" He said, springing by Nova who in turn gave him an uppity look and dragged long off her ever present cigarette. She had stopped hooking since I killed Colin and now took to just hanging around like a bad smell, neither coming or going. Just passing the time like I was but expecting Gob to continue paying her for it despite the fact that she did nothing to help him.

"What do you think you're doing?" She said.

"Going to get some grub." I replied.

She sauntered over to me, spoke smoothly in her low, warm voice.

"You've been spending an awful lot of time with Gob." She said.

I furrowed my brow.  
"Yeah? And? Cut to the chase. What do you want?"

She dragged off her cigarette.  
"You try to be discreet about it, but I know that you sleep in the same room you know."

"Aaaannd?" I said, impatiently.

"What's the deal?" she said.

"What's it to you?" I said.

"I don't like it." She said plainly.  
"It's a conflict of interests for me."

"Oh well I guess I'd better stop seeing my friend then. I guess I'd better just break his heart and leave and never come back." I said sarcastically.

"There was a balance here before you showed up. Do you think you can just blow into town and fuck  
up everything? I had a good thing going until you showed up."

I turned to leave.  
"I'm sure you'll manage." I said.

"So do you actually _do _him?" She asked.

I didn't dignify her question with a response.

"don't you want to know if I did him too?" She purred.

"Frankly, Nova. I don't give a fuck because if you did it's in the past, and quite frankly I don't think you did because by the time I came around he was just about as starved as a feral dog for someone to touch him. So if you'll excuse me, I'm going to leave you with your questions because I have to go upstairs and get _extra uninhibited_.

She sucked back the final drag of her cigarette and angrily ground it underfoot.  
"He was mine long before you showed up, little miss Dangerous." She said.  
"And he'll be mine long after you go back to the wastes like the scavenger that you are."

"Whatever you say." I said, unaffected.

She turned and disappeared into a back room and I went down to the Brass Lantern to grab some food.

I returned to Gob's, went in through the back and went upstairs to his room, my rucksack full of ancient food items and nameless things on sticks that were dubiously scentless.

Nova was in the room with him and they spoke in quiet voices. I couldn't quite make out what they were saying. I cleared my throat.

"Well hello again." Nova said as phony as you like.

"Mmm hmm" I said raising an eyebrow at her.

She turned to Gob but kept her eyes on me most of the time.  
She leaned into him in a blatantly flirty fashion.

"Gob, sweetheart. I'm going to go to bed. Can you open up early tomorrow?"

"Why do I always gotta open?" He grumbled.  
"When was the last time I got to sleep in?"

She lit a cigarette, placed her hand on Gob's chest, got even closer to him so he was practically inhaling her breath. She rain her finger softly across his jawline.

"I need my beauty sleep, tiger." She said.

"For what?" Gob said.  
"Since Moriarty disappeared you haven't lifted a goddamn finger around here. You just expect me to do everything."

I couldn't suppress an inelegant snort of disdainful laughter.  
It just kind of popped out before I could stuff it back in.

"Do you mind?" She said to me.

"Do I mind what?" I replied.

"Can we have some privacy?" She insisted.

I thought about it for a moment.

"Nope."

I leaned against the wall, made myself comfortable.  
Smiled arrogantly.

With a huff of irritation she turned her back to me and whispered something in his ear. Something I couldn't hear but I knew it was a proposition and there was a sense of desperation to it the way her hand moved over his chest like she was trying to calm an animal and the way her other hand idly caressed her chest as if to draw attention to it.

Gob took a step back, his eyes widened into pale blue pools of haze like smoke trapped in a room.  
"For real?" He said.

Nova looked at him and then markedly at me. She drew into him dramatically and whispered in his ear just audibly enough for me to hear her.

"Now that Colin is gone we can run this place together, you and me…and I'll make all the fringe benefits available to you. All of them.

He looked at her in awe, savoring the words he'd wanted to hear for so very long, he held his mouth open, clearly trying to compile words for the feelings he'd compounded for so many years .  
He looked at me and took a deep breath. As he opened his mouth to speak I was sure I had lost him.

"Too little too late, Nova." he said.  
"Too little. Too late."

"What?" She said.

"I'm taking over the big room. You can always go visit Jericho at his place. I don't care what you do actually. All you need to know is I'll expect you to be back in time to open up though. I'm sleeping in for once and it's time you picked up some slack. I'm not a slave anymore. Not to Mortiarty, not to you."

Nova looked like she had been hit with a Mesmertron.

"But- I. You… I thought..."

"Close the door on your way out please." He said.

Grinning like a Cheshire Cat, I opened the bottle of whiskey and handed it to him as I watched  
her turn on her heel as rigid as a puppet and heard her footsteps go down the stairs.

"Too little too late." Gob said to himself quietly before sitting down and taking a good slug of the amber liquid.

I snuggled up beside him and put my head on his shoulder, reveling in his warmth.

"You still good for that backrub?" He said, all perky and expectant.

"Of course." I said.  
"God knows you've earned it."


End file.
